Very exciting start to the day on a the bullet train to Sendai. Nothing prepared me for what I experienced…it will stay with me til I meet the earth again…Bullet train to the past
It was fate…whilst waiting for our train, we see taiko penguin on the side of another!
Although I would have welcomed a long train ride, in only 90 minutes we were off into the centre of Sendai, making our way to Denryoku Hall, where we went to watch a wadaiko show rehearsal as guests of honour. It was Mr Fumio Oikawa’s group’s 15 year celebration and showed Miyake, Chichibu Yatai Bayashi, Hachijo, Lion Dance, Fan Dance; a more traditional kumidaiko show than yesterdays, by a group of mixed ages which I always like to see, all joyously performed, with so many people involved.
In the interval I stood and watched as Jonathan and Mr Kubo met again after 7 years had passed since their groups exchanged (Exeter Yonneyama) – I know Jonathan had been looking forward to seeing him again, and it was evident that common language was not needed as they re-united. It took 45 minutes and 2 hotel receptionists to translate in order for us to devise a plan for our short stay with Mr Kubo, and as we left for a meander around Sendai, we still didn’t really know what the plan was, but it mattered not. Within minutes we were eating sushi, drinking beer and all laughing and joking, albeit in our own languages. Then onto the aftershow party where we got a really warm welcome – I talked to 2 girls who played Omiyage, and they were excited to hear that TaikoProject had peformed and run workshops in Exeter, UK. The taiko world is such a familiar and comforting one, wherever you go, I find.
One moment that will stay with me for a long time was when Fumio was talking about a possible exchange, and produced a newspaper clipping and said it’s ok, please come, please come…it showed local radiation levels on a map. All we could do was reassure him…we’re here now, aren’t we?
When we thought we were headed for the car, we ended up in a restaurant, eating more…and drinking more beer! Happily into the car for an hour as we headed North and finally to Mr Kubo’s house and after meeting Matsuko and their 2 grandchildren, we got a chance to rest, well, after staying up and drinking sake over some photos of Mr Kubo’s group in Paris, and found out through photographs that the earthquakes had destroyed his house completely. When we had contacted Mr Kubo, he had said nothing of this, just news of the taiko group members…and here they were smiling, playing with their grandchildren. Looking through picture books of the disaster, I have no idea how anyone starts to recover from that. We are going to the site of the tsunami tomorrow so we shall see for ourselves what progress has been made and the strength of these people…honestly, if it weren’t for those pictures, we would never have known a thing. I had been apprehensive about staying here with no shared language, but once again I am filled with joy at how people can share so much without language, and I’m so glad to be able to share in their home place for a while.
Taiko in the community / taiko is community
Today has been the most exceptional day in Japan so far…because it has been beautiful, unnerving, hard to absorb, fascinating, and wonderful. Even without boring you with details that I will want to remember in years to come, this won’t take a short time, as it’s just been one of those days.
After breakfast we drove down to the village kindergarten school where we were left with a Nippon Taiko Foundation representative (who spoke as much English as I do Japanese) and we had no idea really why we were there, but after a short time it turned out to be just like visiting a prep school in England. Lots of little kids who were really excited to see us and we were guests of honour at their assembly where they sang and danced for us, and after we played taiko for them, they played taiko for us, and we played together …they loved it, we loved it. We spent the day with them, went to pull potatoes out of the ground together, stopping to play with baby frogs along the way and eating snow cones afterwards in the hot sun…an unexpected and truly lovely way to see Japan…through the eyes of 4 year olds playing singing and eating!
We couldn’t have had a more contrasted afternoon, and although it was a shock to have this in such close proximity to what came next, upon reflection, it is only right, because life has heartache and joy in the same breath sometimes. Having met up with Yumi, one of the exchange students from Yoneyama Maruyama taiko group who exchanged with Kagemusha Taiko in 2002, who was just as pleased to see 
Jonathan as he was to see her, we drove 40 minutes to Miniamisinraku – a town that no longer exists due to the tsunami in 2011. Mr Kubo had arranged a meeting with the town official who spent an hour showing us around, walking amongst the site where a town once stood….Yumi’s perfect English brought everything that we had read about from Mr Kubo to life. I don’t want to write about details here, after standing in front of sights that make no sense and hearing stories that induce an immediate physical reaction, I wondered why Mr Kubo might bring us here…even he said that when he goes there energy leaves him and he loses hope again. But I understood eventually why we were there: standing in a high school on top of a hill overlooking the shore, where water was 2 storeys high; officials have no idea how to thank people who raised money for the people of that town, but what they can do is show people who will spread the word that progress is being made, that they have found ways to be positive, that they are still smiling, that it will not be forgotten but that strength has been found for life to continue.
And so…after that I thought nothing else could fit into one day, but when we got back to My Kubo’s house, we had no idea that Yoneyama Maruyama Taiko would be there, with taiko set up, ready to share with us what brings them together as a group…and a barbeque with little kids playing, kittens being passed around, with plenty beer and sake, and we got to hang out together with the mozquitos. We were so tired, but after I’d been dressed in a kimono by Matsuko’s mother, played taiko, talked for hours about wadaiko with the old guard of Yoneyama, and talked about post-tsunami tourism and censorship in Japan with the younger crowd…well, it finished a while ago and I’m still up and wanting to write everything down before I forget anything…I haven’t got time to be tired.
Part of this project is to ask some pretty direct questions about taiko, about what it is to play taiko, why people play it, why I play it, what I’m doing, how taiko in the UK is going to grow…and I feel honoured that 6 guys wanted to do nothing more than to talk about it for hours (and drink sake) and were really happy to not just be polite but to really talk to me (Yumi tells me the sake helps with that matter)…understanding what people think and how they feel won’t change what’s happened in the past or the way things are, but I couldn’t think of the future of taiko in the UK without asking those questions as much as I can…and in the end, it’s the same thing: people play wadaiko because somewhere they feel deeply about it’s power to say something. And that thing can be different for every group, but as long as it’s true to that group, it’s essentially the same thing – a human thing, that we are all doing.
Some might want to preserve tradition, some might want to push the boundaries of innovation or collaboration, or use it as a way of bringing people together, and as I found out some really old groups started because it was a good way of attracting attention from the opposite sex! …but as it was said tonight, people have different styles of playing depending on where they’re from and where they’re going, but it’s keeping taiko alive, sharing it and with any luck it’s roots will be preserved, respected, and essentially, the world will be a better place for it.
So, some days of my life I have spent in front of a computer not talking to anyone, or in bed tired or sick, and some days I will remember for the rest of my life…not really believing that it is my life – how did I get to be in such a privileged position? I hope I can do something with it…but now, I have to sleep, back to Tokyo tomorrow, and surprisingly, I wrote all that and didn’t drink any sake!
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